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John Lacey (cq), a partner of Centennial Livestock, checks on range cattle on part of the Tejon Ranch near Arvin, California on Thursday, December 6, 2007. RUSTLING story.
By DAN OCAMPO/DAN OCAMPO PHOTOGRAPHY/SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Ran on: 12-16-2007
John Lacey, a partner of Centennial Livestock, checks on cattle on part of the Tejon Ranch near Arvin (Kern County). After gradually decreasing until 2002, rustling has been going up.
Ran on: 12-15-2007

Photo: Dan Ocampo/Dan OcampoPhotography

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John Lacey (cq), a partner of Centennial Livestock,...

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RUSTILINGxx_163_LH.JPG Cows at Souza's dairy farm. A Turlock dairy operator, Margo Souza, lost some 200 cows in recent years to thieves.
Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/12/12/07
**Margo Souza cq
Ran on: 12-16-2007
John Lacey, a partner of Centennial Livestock, checks on cattle on part of the Tejon Ranch near Arvin (Kern County). After gradually decreasing until 2002, rustling has been going up.

Stanislaus County - The other day, two young heifer calves were stolen from a dairy in Tulare County. The thieves drove them to Kings County, where they apparently discovered to their chagrin that the animals were branded.

That would make selling them difficult. If they tried to sell the calves at a livestock auction, the state brand inspectors would want to see proof of ownership. Cops on the case think the thieves figured they were toast. So, they simply tossed the animals out of their car in downtown Hanford, in front of the flour mill at Sixth and Green streets, and drove away. A car came by and struck and killed one of the calves. The other one wandered a mile away, ending up in a man's front yard.

Who knew cattle rustling is still around? In fact, it's on the rise. Over the past 10 years, more than 16,000 head of cattle and calves valued at more than $9 million have been reported missing and stolen from California farms and ranches, according to the livestock bureau.

From May to November, 807 head of cattle and calves were reported missing or stolen in California, according to the state. That compares with 602 for the same period last year, said John Suther, the well-traveled chief investigator at the livestock bureau.

Crime statistics on rustling show that it was at its worst in 1998, with 2,849 reported missing and stolen cattle and calves, with a value at the time of $1.3 million. The incidences fell off the following year, to 1,696, and then to 1,523 in 2000 and 1,674 in 2001. The reporting bottomed out in 2002 with 907 head of cattle stolen, but it has been largely moving upward since then, to 1,336 stolen animals in 2006. Thieves are on a pace to keep climbing this year.

"They just don't steal cattle," said Suther, an imposing presence in a custom-made white cowboy hat from Greeley Hat Works in Colorado that rarely leaves his head. "They steal feed, medicine. I've seen them build their corrals out of railroad ties they steal from the railroad company. It's all pure profit."

The theft of animals is but a part of the growing agricultural crime wave in California. Last year, in only 13 counties in the Central Valley and Central Coastal region, agricultural crime totaled $14.4 million in losses, from copper pipe to farm vehicles to 1,500-pound cows, said Danielle Rau, the rural crime prevention specialist at the California Farm Bureau.

Numerous cattle thieves were lynched in California during the 1850s, according to the rule of vigilante justice, said San Francisco attorney and historian John Boessenecker. Those days are gone, but ranchers and dairy operators feel just as violated, angry and betrayed as cattlemen did when the West was young and animals vanished.

Higher prices add demand

And the crimes are occurring increasingly because they are tied to the rising prices for beef, milk and for animals themselves, even as the state and rural law enforcement agencies increase training so that officers can better deter and detect wrongdoing and counsel ranchers to be ever vigilant and maintain accurate inventories of their herds.

One of the recommendations to cattle and dairy operators is to keep newborn calves away from roads where thieves can easily snatch them. "Sometimes you'll see a cow running back and forth alongside a fence, and she is moaning," missing her calf, said Pat Taylor, the brand registrar at the state bureau. "Her bag is full," meaning she has an engorged udder, having just delivered, "and someone has just taken her calf. It's terrible."

Lawley, Taylor, Suther and others at the Bureau of Livestock Identification keep the book on the 23,415 brands for cattle, horses, burros and sheep on file in California, and assist producers in preventing - in an ideal world - the loss of animals to thieves. Last year, the bureau's 50 brand inspectors and investigators assisted law enforcement agencies in arresting 27 people for cattle rustling and helped return 270 head of cattle to their owners.

The majority of these crimes are inside jobs. People on the inside are orchestrating the stealing or maybe helping with it, said Suther. He said many are resolved with good police work, and some have a boost from a disgruntled partner or girlfriend.

Unfortunately, he said, many stolen animals die and others become infected because they're treated poorly. Even those that are recovered often can't rejoin herds because owners fear the spread of infection, he said.

The state urges owners to brand their cattle, but perhaps a quarter of the beef cattle in California are not branded, for humane reasons, largely, and perhaps half of cows in the state are not branded, the bureau estimates. Branding certainly improves chances animals can be found and returned, said Lawley.

Disregarding safety

In some cases, it's no more than a calf or two or three snatched from a dairy alongside a road. These thieves, says Detective Clay Crippen of the Kings County Sheriff's Department, have no regard for the health of the animals they steal. The thieves are very likely in need of a methamphetamine fix, he said. A day-old heifer sells for around $600.

There are much larger cases, too - 20 or 30 head of cattle have gone missing from far-flung ranches. Rustling on that scale is professional and organized, said John Lacey of Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County), who runs cattle in one of the largest operations in the state, at various ranches, and who estimates he has lost 250 head of cattle to thieves over 40 years.

"Those animals are loaded onto a truck, and they get them out of the state," said Lacey. "You'll never see that cattle again. They're bound for slaughter."

Margo Souza, a Turlock dairywoman, thinks the estimates for the head of cattle stolen annually are conservative. She's the president and chief executive of Circle H Dairy Ranch, where she milks 780 cows. Over a year beginning in the spring of 2006, an estimated 140 of her calves and cows, some pregnant, were stolen. It proved to be an inside job.

Detective Mike Myers of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office tracked down the transfer of 20 of Souza's cows, which led to a guilty plea by Ismael Alvarez, 29, Souza's herdsman, or manager.

Stanislaus Deputy District Attorney Shawn Barlow charged Alvarez with one count of felony grand theft of a bovine. It was limited to one count because California law forbids charging multiple counts against defendants for what is essentially one act, said Barlow.

Jail time elusive

Souza says she lost $300,000 to $400,000. Alvarez was sentenced to three years of felony probation - violation would mean sentencing to state prison - and 120 days in county jail. (The maximum punishment for grand theft of a bovine is three years in state prison.) Alvarez has not served time in jail, however, because the county jail is overcrowded and he signed up for an alternative work program, Barlow said.

Alvarez was also ordered by Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Ricardo Cordova to pay Souza $30,000 in restitution, an amount based on the value of the cattle taken, considering their sex, age and ability to produce offspring, said Barlow.

"I'm disappointed he cannot be in jail, but we have a jail overcrowding problem and our jail is often filled with people who are guilty of far more serious crimes," said Barlow.

That's little consolation for Souza.

One reason she thinks 140 is a lowball number is that she discovered her herd now includes some 50 "freemartin" cattle. A freemartin is a female bovine that was a twin with a male. They have non-functioning ovaries, having been sterilized in utero by hormones from the male twin. Fifty is a very high number of freemartin cattle in a herd, leading Souza to believe young heifers were stolen and replaced with the inferior animals.

"I lost calves, cows and milk production," said Souza, 69, carrying on a dairy tradition at the 300-acre ranch her father, Harry, started in 1933. Some of her colleagues in the dairy industry didn't believe her when she told them about losing 140 or more animals, she said.

"It was like, 'It couldn't happen to me.' It can," she said.

It was a costly experience for Souza. She spent $18,000 for a digital security camera system, and $12,000 for a radio frequency identification system for the inventory of her herd. She also has begun sending newborn calves to a calf ranch, where they are well treated and returned after 120 days. "It's an investment, but I get them off the premises right away, and they come back very healthy," said Souza.

About 48 of her cattle were returned as a result of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department investigation, but they were ill with mastitis and other ailments, indicating they had not been cared for, said Souza.

"That's the sad part," she said. "I kept them healthy, and they came back sick. Abused, actually."

Even well-meaning people would have difficulty raising calves, he said. "If I gave you five calves and you had no experience, three of them would be dead in two weeks," said Dr. Robert Cherenson, a large-animal veterinarian at the Lander Veterinary Clinic in Turlock.

"If you kidnap an animal and put them in a stressful environment, they are apt to get sick," said Cherenson. Calves in particular are vulnerable to suffer and die from diarrhea if they are not given colostrum for rotavirus and coronavirus within 12 hours of birth, he said. Milk replacer is essential, too. All living things need food, water and protection from the elements, and it's doubtful they'll get what they need when kidnapped, said Cherenson.

"They're still babies - big babies - and people who steal them are not concerned about their well-being. It's for a quick buck," said Cherenson.

Video of one crime

Crippen, the Kings County detective, recalled a 2000 case in which two men, Gilbert Ayala and Francisco Garcia, stole three calves from a dairy about 5 miles south of Hanford. A surveillance camera recorded the crime, in which the animals were stuffed into the trunk of a late 1990s Ford Thunderbird.

Detectives took the grainy tape to auto dealers, who helped identify the make and model of the car, and officers in Kings County were told to be on the lookout for Thunderbirds.

Ayala and Garcia were stopped shortly thereafter. "You could smell calf poop before you got to the car," said Crippen. "It's a pretty unique smell."

Ayala and Garcia, who Crippen said were covered with calf hair when they were stopped, were shown the tape of the crime and confessed. "They recognized themselves. We didn't cut them a break," said Crippen.

The two were sentenced to three years in state prison in Kings County Superior Court, for conviction of grand theft.

The video of Ayala and Garcia stealing the animals has gone far beyond Kings County. It's shown at gatherings of veterinarians, dairy operators and in law enforcement training.

"I have been a cop so long nothing I see surprises me," Crippen said of the video of the crime. "That's sad but true."

How to keep 'em down on the farm

The Bureau of Livestock Identification at the California Department of Food and Agriculture has these recommendations for beef cattle and dairy operators:

-- Brand your animals. With a brand, they are more easily returned.

-- Count your cattle as often as you can. The earlier you know they are missing, the better chance authorities have of finding them.